The Force Is Strong In EA's New Star Wars Publishing Agreement

The multi-year deal appears to cover original games, rather than those linked to the forthcoming movies. To confuse things further, Disney has retained the rights to certain mobile, online and tablet games related to the franchise.

BioWare, Visceral and DICE are developers all linked with the deal, which is a sign that EA is serious about creating Star Wars games for a "core" audience. Star Wars 1313 — a next-gen title which was feared cancelled when LucasArts shut its doors — hasn't been mentioned as yet, but there's a chance it could be revived as part of the agreement.

Here's what John Pleasants, Co-President of Disney Interactive, had to say about the deal:

This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come. Collaborating with one of the world’s premier game developers will allow us to bring an amazing portfolio of new Star Wars titles to our fans around the world.

EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau was equally happy:

Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe. Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. DICE and Visceral will produce new games, joining the BioWare team which continues to develop for the Star Wars franchise. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay.

Given EA's frosty relationship with Nintendo, does this mean an end to Star Wars titles on Nintendo systems? Given the quality of recent games, that could be a blessing in disguise — but EA's internal studios are a talented bunch.

What are your thoughts on this deal? Are you looking forward to seeing some new Star Wars titles, or has the franchise ceased to be of interest to you? Post a comment to tell us.

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.

I can't see how not getting games could ever be a blessing in disguise. You don't have to buy everything that gets released, so just ignore the ones you don't like. I don't think anyone has ever not bought a console because it has a load of bad games. The reason they don't buy it, is that it doesn't have any good games.

Putting the EA/Nintendo relationship to one side, this is great news. Lucas Arts were incapable of putting out good Star Wars games. Think of your favourite SW games. KOTOR? Rogue Leader? Battlefront? Jedi Knight? Lucas Arts didn't make any of them.

Instead you have 3 great developers ready to go to work, one of which made what is widely considered the best Star Wars game of all time. People need to get over the EA bias. There's far more chance of great Star Wars games now.

This leaves me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, EA has some great developers under its belt. Here's hoping for a Battlefront developed by DICE. On the other, EA keeps shafting Nintendo so the thought of these coming to Wii U is iffy.

This pretty much means no Star Wars for Nintendo Consoles and always on Origin for PC.After what happened to The Old Republic i would have thought Star Wars would never go near EA again in th enear future. And now they got everything. It is such a shame.

@Peach64Two of the four games you listed were made by companies who went out business earlier this generation. Another is a subsidiary of Activision whose only recent credits are for Call of Duty DLC packs and the last one is BioWare, whose founders quit the company after the Mass Effect 3 debacle and whose latest Star Wars product was The Old Republic, which was a mediocre WoW clone whose exclusivity agreement put the only other Star MMO out of business.

Good Star Wars games are a thing of the past, and you're crazy if you think EA is going to turn that around, especially when they just got voted worst company in America, are in the midst of laying off a sizeable chunk of their workforce, and their last CEO resigned for failing to lead the company to profitability.

@BrainBoxLtd No-one was surprised that a Star Wars MMO would be aimed at the best audience for an MMO game - all the people who love WoW & other similar MMOs. Bioware have made some of the best RPGs in the last 10 years, and one miss (two if you include Dragon Age II) amongst all those hits is no real cause for concern.

EA getting this is bad, EA buisiness model of Release half a game, fill in the rest with DLC and ensure there's plenty of Micro-Transaction opportunities is why.From a WiiU owners perspective, while we will be saved from EA's poor, from a consumers point of view, buisness model it does also mean EA will use this Major Franchise as weapon to further drive home thier opinion that that you shouldn't buy a WiiU by simply making sure all except the WiiU get any Starwars games they publish.

@Peach64 I have to agree. There is way too much bias against EA lately and quite a few of their franchises are highly rated so their developers stand just as good of a chance at creating quality Star Wars titles as anyone else.

I can just imagine the possibilties of a new Star Wars RPG from Bioware. It would be hard for me to resist getting a PS4 if they officially announced that game. Also, DICE could possibly create another Star Wars Republic Commando or Battlefront 3. I wonder what will happen to Star Wars 1313 though.

After seeing what BioWare and EA did with Star Wars: The Old Republic, I really don't think it's a bad thing that Nintendo systems could be left out.

Okay, well not really. I love the first Knights of the Old Republic, and it would make complete sense for DICE to do a Battlefront game, both of which I'd want to see new games of on Nintendo's platforms. However, times have changed and so have these companies, so my hopes aren't exactly high about the future of Star Wars games. We'll see how things go.

Hmm, so here's a contridiction, So on one hand Frostbite3 wont work on WiiU (Total BS I know but bear with me), Yet EA say that Starwars games will be on All Major platforms, including console, Mobile and Pc.
Heres the Crux tho, Are Disney forcing EA not to exclude WiiU or Will EA's well known opinion of WiiU not being a Major Platform leave them scope to not release on WiiU.. of course the 3DS can not, not be considered a major platform the same as the Vita can't be considered a major platform, but then we're talking Nintendo and Sony, and EA and Nintendo are most definatly not drinking buddys yet its well known EA, MS and Sony enjoy their Weekly orgy, so what are the major platforms are likely not to be decided by sales figures, but who EA likes the most.
Personaly unless Disney forces EA, I can't see any Starwars Games coming to WiiU or 3DS.

@Angelic_Lapras_King Even then they wouldn't have to release a good game. Just look at FIFA 12.5, I mean 13 for WiiU. Or 11, 12, 13 for Wii.
The only good games they released for Nintendo platforms lately have been both Boom Blox and Grand Slam Tennis. Almost forgot about the great Dead Space: Extraction. That's 4 games in, 6 years?

@GiftedGimp actually they will probably release them for Nintendo platforms because Star Wars games sold very well on Wii. The thing is, will they care to make them good?